Teradata platform helps big-data analysts ask the right questions

Next-generation analytics is not about getting the right answer so much as asking the right questions. But what if agencies could get the data to help them discover the questions they need to ask?

Organizations need more than just a handful of analytic tools, according to officials with Teradata, a provider of analytics software. They need an entire discovery platform that weaves analytical tools together to help business users “uncover things they didn’t know they needed to know.”

To address this, the company recently unveiled the Teradata Aster Discovery platform that snaps multiple analytical engines into a common framework. The common interface lets business analysts investigate all types of data sources – structured, multi-structured or unstructured – without having to change formats of the analytical engines or rely on data scientists. Yet the platform is sophisticated enough to meet the analytical needs of data scientists, company officials said.